The Elections Commission has announced that a second round of voting will be held on Saturday in constituencies where candidates received an equal number of votes in the recently concluded Local Council and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) elections.

President of the Commission, Mohamed Zahid, said preparations are underway to conduct the re-poll, which is scheduled to take place on April 18.

Despite this, the elections were among the largest held in the country, with a significant number of candidates contesting across constituencies.

The April 4 vote included three separate processes: Local Council elections, Women’s Development Committee elections, and a public referendum seeking public opinion on whether presidential and parliamentary elections should be held on the same day.

In the council elections, 626 councillors were elected to island councils, while 52 councillors were elected to city councils. A similar number of members were also elected to Women’s Development Committees nationwide.